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Welcome to everyone reading through the New Testament in 2007. Each day, there will be a new post for the day's reading. You are invited to share your thoughts about what you've read, by adding comments to that post.

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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

A poke in the ribs. Acts 12.

Once again, Peter's back in prison. This time at the hands of Herod Agrippa, the Jewish "king" installed by Rome. He knows it's deadly serious, because James has just been executed. But it's night, and when there's nothing you can do, sleep is a wise choice. What happens next is described in verse 7 -

Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the prison cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly!” And the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. (NET)

The NASB and NIV translations uses similar language, while the New Living Translation (NLT), says the angel "tapped" Peter on the side.

Gang, that angel poked Peter in the ribs. "Wake up!" Poke, poke. I've experienced that. Only it wasn't an angel, except in the sense that my wife can sometimes be angelic. And while we're talking about translation terms, it's probably useful for us to think of angels as messengers or agents of heaven, in order to remove some of the popular associations in our mind about angels.

So, God sends His heavenly messenger to wake up Peter with a poke in the ribs and to lead him out of prison. I could use a good poke in the ribs today too, and I'm going to pay attention to see if I get one.

There are big things happening in this chapter, especially the contrast between Antioch in chapter 11, and Israel in chapter 12, so feel free to share what you thought about chapter 12.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My version says the angel "struck Peter on the side" and I admit that caught my attention! I had not thought of angels being...insistent. On angels...I am really curious about the text notes for verse 15. It suggests that this angel was "his angel" as in assigned to him by God to minister to Peter and/or that such an angel "occasionally showed himself and that his appearance resembled the person under his care." This I must think on. On another note, my text notes indicate that about ten years pass between Jesus' death and resurrection and James' death (verse 2). Ten years is a good long time and rearranges the process of Act(ion)s for me. Lastly, a funny connection in this chapter. I was working with my students today on making text-to-world connections with literature. When I was reading about Peter coming to Mary's door I immediately thought of the Folger's coffee commerical that was on TV (or 'the box' as the aforementioned students call it) every Christmas when I was a little girl. Little sister comes down the stairs and sees big brother walking in the door, home from college early Christmas morning and shouts so lovingly, "Peter!" Not exactly our Peter's reception, but no doubt he made those in Mary's house exceedingly happy, too.

9:41 PM
hook said...

For anyone reading, Courtney, could you identify the text notes you're referring to? Are they from the NIV Study Bible, for example, or are you referring to translator notes at the NET Bible?

And, it looks like we'll need a timeline for everyone.

9:56 PM

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